Gather up your spells and summon your allies, previews for the next Magic the Gathering set have started to appear. It is time to return once more to the metropolis of the multiverse. It is time to Return to Ravnica!

Ravnica is a Plane made up entirely of one massive city. Among its streets and halls mighty guilds vie with one another for power and to further their own goals. Each of these guilds holds mastery over two of the colour of magic. For example, the guild Rakdos controls Black and Red.

This of course means we will be seeing more of the ever popular hybrid cards. First introduced in the original Ravnica set, these cards allow you to use either of their mana type to summon them.

We can also expect to see far more of the gold bordered cards.

Unlike hybrids, gold cards are more specific in the mana required to cast them, needing a mix of different coloured mana rather than being interchangeable as in the case of hybrid cards.

But are multicoloured cards the only thing we can expect to see in Return to Ravnica? You bet it ain't, for the guilds will be bringing some new signature mechanics to play; Detain, Scavenge, Populate, Unleash and Overload.

Unleash makes a creature a truly formidable offensive force, providing you with the option of letting it enter the fray with a +1/+1 counter on it at the cost of its ability to block. The best bit about this is it appears to be optional. You MAY have it enter with the +1/+1 counter, meaning it could enter as a blocker if you really need it to.

Detain allows you to effectively paralyse an opposing permanent for a whole turn. Useful for upsetting your enemy's carefully laid plans and strategies.

Overload is a truly devastating ability. For a greatly increased casting value you may replace each instance of the word "target" in the card's description with the word "each"! So you go from targeting a single permanent to loads of them! Hooray, destruction for all.

Scavenge is an ability which can mean your creatures become more useful to you dead than alive. Mwahahaha. When a creature with Scavenge is in the graveyard you can exile it in order to give a target creature a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the now exiled creature's power. Watch as the dead become food for the living!

Finally there is Populate.

Although it might not be that good on its own, in a deck which involves you summoning lots of creature tokens this abaility can quickly lead to your opponent facing a veritable swarm of creatures.

Lastly, Return to Ravnica will be bringing us a new land type in the form of Gate cards.

In decks with such a mix of mana and creatures with very specific casting values, these cards will help you to get the mana you need to get the job done.

I for one am definitely getting excited about these new releases and can't wait until we get to see more of what will be emerging from Ravnica later this September.

Of course, if you can't wait until the end of September to get started with Return to Ravnica then you will be excited to hear that the first duel deck set will be released on the 7th of September.

Bringing you two decks based around the Izzet and Golgari guilds, along with their respective guild leaders, this duel deck set will be perfect to get you into the world of Ravnica.

Are any of you Magic players excited about these upcoming releases? Do these tempt any of you to pick up a deck and give it a go? Drop us a comment with your thoughts below.